Harris was born on 1 October 1930 at Overdale, 8 Landsdown Villas, Ennis Road,Limerick,[5][6][7] and was the fifth in a family of eight children (six boys and two girls) born to Ivan Harris, a flour merchant, and his wife, Mildred (née Harty).[3] Overdale was "a tall, elegant, early 19th-century redbrick" house with nine bedrooms, in a wealthy part of Limerick, the houses "built at the turn of the 20th century for Limerick's burgeoning middle class... people who could afford properly granddrawing rooms, a bedroom each for the children and one for the pot, plus space for a few servants".[8][9] He was educated by theJesuits atCrescent College. A talentedrugby union player, he appeared on severalMunster Junior andSenior Cup teams for Crescent, and played forGarryowen.[10] Harris's athletic career was cut short when he caughttuberculosis in his teens. He remained an ardent fan of theMunster Rugby andYoung Munster teams until his death, attending many of their matches, and there are numerous stories of japes at rugby matches with the actors and fellow rugby fansPeter O'Toole andRichard Burton.
After completing his studies at the academy, he joinedJoan Littlewood'sTheatre Workshop. He began getting roles in West End theatre productions, starting withThe Quare Fellow in 1956, a transfer from the Theatre Workshop. He spent nearly a decade in obscurity, learning his profession on stages throughout the UK.[13]
InThe Molly Maguires (1970), he playedJames McParland, the detective who infiltrates the title organisation, headed bySean Connery. It was a box-office flop. HoweverA Man Called Horse (1970), with Harris in the title role, an 1825 English aristocrat who is captured by Native Americans, was a major success. He portrayedOliver Cromwell in the filmCromwell in 1970 oppositeAlec Guinness as KingCharles I of England. That year British exhibitors voted him the 9th-most popular star at the UK box office.[17]
Harris starred in aWestern forSamuel Fuller,Riata, which stopped production several weeks into filming. The project was re-assembled with a new director and cast, except for Harris, who returned:The Deadly Trackers (1973). In 1973 Harris published a book of poetry,I, In the Membership of My Days, which was later reissued in part in an audioLP format, augmented by self-penned songs such as "I Don't Know".
He appeared in another action film,Golden Rendezvous (1977), based on a novel by Alistair Maclean, shot in South Africa. Harris was sued by the film's producer for his drinking; Harris counter-sued for defamation and the matter was settled out of court.[19]Golden Rendezvous was a flop butThe Wild Geese (1978), where Harris played one of several mercenaries, was a big success outside America.[20]Ravagers (1979) was more action, set in apost-apocalyptic world.Game for Vultures (1979) was set in Rhodesia and shot in South Africa.
For a while in the 1980s, Harris went into semi-retirement onParadise Island, inthe Bahamas, where he kicked his drinking habit and embraced a healthier lifestyle. It had a beneficial effect. Harris's career was revived by his success on stage inCamelot, and powerful performance in theWest End run ofLuigi Pirandello'sHenry IV.[21]
A lifelong supporter of Jesuit education principles,[22] Harris established a friendship withUniversity of Scranton President Rev. J. A. Panuska[23][24] and raised funds for a scholarship for Irish students established in honour of his brother and manager, Dermot, who had died the previous year of a heart attack.[23][24] He chaired acting workshops and cast the university's production ofJulius Caesar in November 1987.
Harris hesitated to take the role of Dumbledore inHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) owing to the multi-film commitment and his declining health, but he ultimately accepted because, according to his account of the story, his 11-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again if he did not take it.[27] In an interview with theToronto Star in 2001, Harris expressed his concern that his association with theHarry Potter films would outshine the rest of his career. He explained, "Because, you see, I don't just want to be remembered for being in those bloody films, and I'm afraid that's what's going to happen to me."[28]
Harris also made part of the Bible TV movie project filmed as a cinema production for the TV, a project produced byLux Vide Italy with the collaboration ofRAI and Channel 5 of France,[29] and premiered in the United States in the channel TNT in the 1990s. He portrayed the main andtitle character in the productionAbraham (1993) as well as SaintJohn of Patmos in the 2000 TV film productionApocalypse.
Harris recorded several albums of music, one of which,A Tramp Shining, included the seven-minute hit song "MacArthur Park" (Harris insisted on singing the lyric as "MacArthur's Park").[30] This song was written byJimmy Webb, and it reached number 2 on the AmericanBillboardHot 100 chart. It also topped several music sales charts in Europe during the summer of 1968. "MacArthur Park" sold over one million copies and was awarded agold disc.[31] In 2024, "MacArthur Park" was featured in the wedding sequence of theTim Burton filmBeetlejuice Beetlejuice.[32] A second album, also consisting entirely of music composed by Webb,The Yard Went on Forever, was released in 1969.[33] In the 1973 TV special "Burt Bacharach in Shangri-La", after singing Webb's "Didn't We", Harris tells Bacharach that since he was not a trained singer he approached songs as an actor concerned with words and emotions, acting the song with the sort of honesty the song is trying to convey. Then he proceeds to sing "If I Could Go Back", from theLost Horizon soundtrack.
Harris paid £75,000 forWilliam Burges'Tower House inHolland Park, London, in 1968, after discovering that the American entertainerLiberace had arranged to buy the house but had not yet put down a deposit.[36][37] Harris employed the original decorators, Campbell Smith & Company Ltd., to carry out extensive restoration work on the interior.[37]
Harris was a vocal supporter of theProvisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) from 1973 until 1984.[38] In January 1984, remarks he made on the previous month'sHarrods bombing caused great controversy, after which he discontinued his support for the PIRA.[39][40][38]
At the height of his stardom in the 1960s and early 1970s, Harris was almost as well known for his hellraiser lifestyle and heavy drinking as he was for his acting career. He was a longtime alcoholic until he became ateetotaller in 1981. Nevertheless, he did resume drinkingGuinness a decade later.[41] He gave up drugs after almost dying from acocaine overdose in 1978.[citation needed]
Harris was diagnosed withHodgkin's disease in August 2002, reportedly after being hospitalised withpneumonia.[42] He died atUniversity College Hospital inBloomsbury, London, on 25 October 2002, aged 72.[43] Harris quipped "It was the food!" as he was wheeled out of theSavoy Hotel for the last time.[44] Harris spent his final three days in a coma.[45] Harris's body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered inthe Bahamas, where he owned a home.[1][2]
Harris was a lifelong friend of the actorPeter O'Toole, and his family reportedly hoped that O'Toole would replace Harris as Dumbledore inHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). There were, however, concerns about insuring O'Toole for the six remaining films in the series.[46] Harris was ultimately succeeded as Dumbledore byMichael Gambon.[47]Chris Columbus, director of the first twoHarry Potter films, had visited Harris during his last days and had promised not to recast Dumbledore, confident of his eventual recovery. In a 2021 interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, Columbus revealed that Harris was writing an autobiography during his stay at the hospital, but it has not been published since.[48]
On 30 September 2006, Manuel Di Lucia, ofKilkee inCounty Clare, a longtime friend, organised the placement in Kilkee of a bronze life-size statue of Harris. It shows Harris at the age of eighteen playingracquetball. (He had won the local competition three or four consecutive times during the late 1940s.) The sculptor was Seamus Connolly and the work was unveiled byRussell Crowe.[49] Harris was an accomplishedsquash racquets player, winning the Tivoli Cup in Kilkee four consecutive years (1948 to 1951), a record unsurpassed to this day.[50]
Another life-size statue of Harris, as King Arthur from his filmCamelot, has been erected in Bedford Row, in the centre of his home town of Limerick. The sculptor of this statue was the Irish sculptor Jim Connolly, a graduate of theLimerick School of Art and Design.
At the 2009 BAFTAs,Mickey Rourke dedicated his Best Actor award to Harris, calling him a "good friend and great actor".
In 2013 Rob Gill and Zeb Moore founded the annualRichard Harris International Film Festival.[51] The Richard Harris Film Festival is one of Ireland's fastest-growing film festivals, growing from just ten films in 2013 to over 115 films in 2017. Each year, one of Harris's sons attends the festival in Limerick.
In 2015, the Limerick Writers' Centre unveiled a commemorative plaque outside Charlie St George's pub onParnell Street. The pub was a favourite drinking place of Harris on his visits to Limerick. The plaque, celebrating Harris's literary output as part of a Literary Walking Tour of Limerick, was unveiled by his son Jared Harris.[52]
In 1996, Harris was honoured with acommemorative Irish postage stamp for the "Centenary of Irish Cinema", a four-stamp set featuring twelve Irish actors in four Irish films.[53][54] He was again honoured in 'Irish Abroad' stamps in 2020.[55]
Ridley Scott, who directed Harris inGladiator, would later castPaul Mescal as Lucius Verus inGladiator II in part because Mescal clocked a resemblance with Harris, who portrayed his character's grandfather in the original film.[56]
.jpg)
_trailer_-_Richard_Harris_3.png)
.jpg)
